Determining Property Boundaries in France

Tuesday 04 December 2007

French land registry plans are not a wholly reliable guide to the boundaries of your property, so how do you go about getting a precise boundary determined?

When you buy an older property in France, it is rare for there to be a precise definition of the boundaries within the legal documents.

The land registration plan, called the cadastre, gives only an approximate indication of the boundaries, and is unusual for the deeds themselves to specify features or measurements that define the precise limits of the property.

The creation of the cadastre dates from the Napoleonic Revolution, serving as the basis for determining land taxes, and its central purpose remains a fiscal one, not one concerning property rights.

Accordingly, in a boundary dispute you would be unable to use the cadastre in a court of law as proof of ownership. It merely serves as a presumption of the ownership of property.

In order to resolve any dispute, you will need to call upon the services of a land surveyor called a geometre, to determine the precise boundaries of the property.

You can read more about land boundaries and how to resolve land boundary disputes in our Guide to Determining Land Boundaries in France.